Fix Your Heart or Die

To all trans and nonbinary people:

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Design credit: JCP

This Body's on TikTok

Yeah, sure, Benoit Blanc is awesome, but can Benoit Blanc fans do this?

The Kimreanmania is alive and well. Only the chosen have it.

Mr. Kimrean

 A page from the unsold spec script of "This Body's" film adaptation. Cause why not.

 

Make It

My last book was published four years ago today.

That was one amazing summer. This Body's first edition and the Meddling Kids paperback came out in the same month. The photographic evidence of that period on my phone is a stream of hotel rooms, bookstores, comic cons, and Kimrean cosplayers. I had the time of my life.

And then.

There is a pervasive habit of discussing a writer's success, or any artist's, by saying that they "made it". I always bridle at questions using that phrasing. First, because "making it" conveys that there is some sort of bar to be cleared separating hopefuls from achievers. That's false: like most things once believed to be binaries, success is a spectrum. And second, "making it" seems to imply that it can't be unmade. But it can. One underperforming book, a couple bad decisions, a sprinkle of bad luck, and a recession to top, and you're all the way back to struggling artist. Juggling jobs, rent, and scrambling for people's attention. In four years, I've gone back to my 25. Eat my ass, Estée Lauder.

We talk about art like it's a race. We encourage each other to never give up, never relent, until we reach some goal, but there is no goal. Summer 2018 was not my goal; it was just an extraordinarily good thing that happened to me, all the better because I got it by doing something that I would've done anyway. I still do it: I write what I like. 

Forget about "making it": art is the purpose, not the means. If your purpose is to get rich, just eat richer people.

Quidnuncs and Aardvarks

Y'all ask, I answer, this blog looks active despite the dearth of new published material.

 

I want to know if you’re working on any new books?

I swear I haven't stopped writing, despite what my Wikipedia page seems to imply! Sadly my upcoming novel Heaven Park has gotten stuck somewhere along the publisher's manuscript-to-book assembly line, and it's still far in the horizon. This is extra frustrating because the logjam is also preventing me from shopping around my new manuscripts, of which I have completed two since Heaven Park (one and two).  

How old were you when you started learning English? And then writing in it?

I was 7-8 when I took my first lesson, and 17 when I took my last. The real learning came later, when I started reading books and watching movies and shows in the original English (in Spain all foreign media is dubbed, a practice I strongly oppose now). I started writing in English around 2004 (23 yo), but never for publication till The Supernatural Enhancements in 2011.

 

How do you come up with the expressions in your books? I swear I'd never heard 'borborygmic' until Meddling Kids. Is it just a process of reading more? Are there secret thesaurus tricks you know?

Thesauruses are awesome, but mostly I come across new words in books and movies. The crux of the matter is that many of those words wouldn't be exotic at all to you, but I make an effort to use them all, regardless of whether they're only new to me or merely obscure. If I only used words with which I am 100% familiar, my English vocabulary would be very limited.

 

Will we see the characters from Meddling Kids again?

In book form, no.

 

Do you see yourself writing a saga? About what? What main character / villain do you imagine for it?

I have considered (even written) loose sequels set in old universes, and I wish I could give A.Z. Kimrean a new case, but I've never envisioned a saga or a multi-part novel. My brain just can't operate at that scale. I am certain that Heaven Park is the longest story I had in me, and right now it's about 570 pages.

Bear with me, I promise it's coming.

Don't tell anyone I'm doing this

"A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio." 

Departure

"I hope my editor likes the new manuscript; it's such a big departure from my previous work."

(Old tweet, but feels fresh anew.)

Fade In

Guess what we're writing these days.

Quicksand & Apricots

I was due to write a post but I couldn't think of a subject, so I asked for help, and this is what we got.

So about A.Z., what's it like for Adrian when Zooey's knocked out, and vice versa? Static? Cognitive impairment? Does he gain full control over her hemisphere, and why doesn't his personality change? Researching for, you know, reasons.

It is said somewhere that both Adrian and Zooey have control of the whole brain the whole time: their only problem is agreeing on what to do. Two pilots, one plane. You can see Adrian without Zooey in chapter 7 and Zooey without Adrian in chapter 10: they're just less frustrated when the other's sleeping. However, both personalities alone are too radical for their own good, so it's best to compromise and help each other. Adrian needs Zooey to show empathy and not to antagonize everyone. Zooey needs Adrian to grab the steering wheel while she plays air drums.

Do you ever get bored of a story during the writing process? I can't tell if when it happens to me if it's because the story is boring, or because I've just been sitting on it for too long and it's just not fun to me anymore.

Bored as in, I'm not interested by this subject anymore, not that I can remember, no. Bored as in, I would rather be playing Terraria right now, yeah, quite often. Take breaks!

Oh, also, about how old is AZ?

I'm gonna say 31. It's how old I was when I met them.

How smoothly does the editing process usually go? Are you ever told to change things you don't want to change/write things you don't want to write?

From my experience, the editing process is sort of a negotiation. I doubt any editor expects an author to take 100% of their suggestions. On the other hand, taking 0% is arrogant and self-righteous. So sure, you can refuse some changes. But you also have to wonder whether you're doing it out of pride: if you and your editor truly see eye to eye, you must listen to their input. Since Meddling Kids, everything I've published has gone through the same editor at Doubleday, and he has improved all of it. We've argued, but I'm glad he stood up to me every time, cause he was right. Also, keep in mind that editorial suggestions seldom come in the form of, "This doesn't work--write this instead"; they're more often like, "this doesn't work--find an alternative," so there is ample room for solutions that please everyone.

The biggest and most specific change that was suggested to me was in The Supernatural Enhancements. I refused it, but I explained why and proposed a different solution, and the book turned better than the manuscript.

Hey Edgar, any advice to someone trying to break into the publishing industry?

I don't like giving writing advice because universally good tips are painfully obvious. Plus, my own beginnings were in Catalan, which is a completely different scene, so my experience doesn't help. Therefore, I only have the usual platitudes for you: write stuff, finish it, and then write more stuff. Don't skip steps 2 and 3.

Thanks all for your questions! Keep them coming!

The Process

Often in panels and Q&A's comes up a question about the writing process, so it's reasonable to think this might interest somebody.

Rules I usually follow when I write

- I start writing long before I have a plan, the minute I come up with a first paragraph. I don't do lay-outs or synopsis. Usually all I have is a premise, and an idea for a climax; I'll come up with the middle as I go.

- I write in the order people will read it, never skip ahead. Not a chapter, not a graph. If I'm stuck thinking of a good joke, I'm stuck. I don't write a bad joke, I don't write "[insert joke]".

- I don't write drafts. The first version has to read like a finished work. It's not the finished work; I edit a lot; but it has to be a finished work.

- I don't bother to figure out things that won't be in the book. If I'm not talking about a character's background, they don't have one.

- I try to keep the number of characters at a minimum.

- I do little research. It's boring, and it tends to contradict or nuance the more interesting scenario that I had envisioned.

- Brevity is an underestimated quality.

Rules I'm following in my current work in progress

- None of the above.

A Mid-Tour Message

Last Tuesday was A.Z. Kimrean's birthday. Their first novel release date, and their actual birthday too. I just decided that. It's canon now.

I was in Houston at the time. I'd had an event in Jersey City the previous day, I flew on to Dallas on the next. It's been a crazy week. It's being a crazy summer. But as Kimrean's spokesperson (yeah, like they need more voices) let me take this break to say, thank you. To the bookstores who are hosting the events and betting so much in this new book, often out of love for Meddling Kids. To the people who attend the events and stand in line for one on my famously time-consuming autographs. To fans who cosplay (yes, that happened). To narrator January LaVoy, actual provider of Kimreans' voice(s) in the audiobook, for star-guesting at the event in Brooklyn. To all those enthusiastic early reviewers, bookstagrammers, podcasts and critics. And to the people in Doubleday who show much faith in what I pitched as a small amuse-bouche between "big" books.

Monday, we're back on the road. And there are more events to come (I'm looking at you, NC). Stay tuned.

Event Alert: #Problematic Tour!

The Kimreans hit the stores on July 31, and I'll be hitting the road with them! Come meet the twins, see me try to read as the stupid text keeps blasting through fourth walls like a wrecking ball and get your copy of This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us doodled, signed, and fresh from the press. See you!

July 30 - 7 pm @ WORD Jersey City (123 Newark Ave - Jersey City, NJ)

July 31 - 6:30 pm @ Murder by the Book (2342 Bissonnet Street - Houston, TX)

August 1 - 7 pm @ Interabang (10720 Preston Rd. Ste. 1009B - Dallas, TX)

August 2 - 6 pm @ Full Circle Books (50 Penn Place, 1900 NW Expressway - Oklahoma City, OK)

August 3 - 7:30 pm @ Books Are Magic (225 Smith St. - Brooklyn, NY)

August 6 - 7 pm @ Poisoned Pen (4014 N Goldwater Blvd - Scottsdale, AZ)

August 7 - 7 pm @ Bookshop West Portal (80 West Portal Avenue - San Francisco, CA)

August 8 - 7 pm @ Copperfield's - (140 Kentucky St. - Petaluma, CA)

August 9 - 7 pm @ Elliott Bay Books (1521 Tenth Avenue - Seattle, WA)

This post will be mostly images

The UK edition of Meddling Kids, published by Titan Books, on sale April 3. 

The US paperback edition of Meddling Kids by Anchor Books, coming May 29. It's the same, only smaller! (DISCLAIMER: NO, IT ISN'T. It's actually a few pages fatter because of all the extra content.)

And last but not least...

This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us. The new novel, courtesy of Doubleday, to land on July 31 (not Fall anymore, children!)

That's it for now. Next post will be mostly text, because I have to tell you about my tour.  :D

& Blanc

So, as I was telling you the other day, by early 2013 I had finished a manuscript in Spanish, with Noir as the setting and, in my opinion, an interesting enough private eye. Eyes. It's complicated.

While I was writing it though, my English debut The Supernatural Enhancements was sold to Doubleday. The size of that deal, added to the fact that I was being thoroughly ignored by publishers in Barcelona, forced me to focus on my work in English. However, I didn't give up on the other languages. This picture, taken in March 2014, shows the galley edition of TSE between two finished manuscripts: Catalan on the left, Spanish on the right. The Spanish one is the Noir novel.  

Because my Catalan- and Spanish-speaking characters longed for the spotlight, they poked their way into the English books. The leads in the manuscript on the left are glimpsed by the Eye in The Supernatural Enhancements. And the P.I. from the Noir novel sneaked into one chapter of Meddling Kids.

Despite my editor's suspicions, this doesn't mean I'm building a sort of "Canteroverse". That would require an architect's mind, and I'm a 36-year-old man who can't use a day planner. If anything, these crossovers mean that I can't focus in a single work. But they also mean that my new novel stars at least one (1) background character from Meddling Kids. And I've been dropping clues.

Oh, and Doubleday just showed the title on Tumblr yesterday, so enough with the hush-hush.

Source: tumblr/doubledaybooks

This Body's Not Big Enough For Both Of Us: my new novel, coming Fall 2018. *Blows party horn.*

Teasing you softly